“It will be better for him to become accustomed to his new conditions,” she urged, when Helen suggested her going to see him. “You and Mr. Cartwright should have these first moments with him. Later I shall be only too glad to help in any way I can.”
But Armstrong himself was not to be denied.
“There is more to all this than you are telling me,” he said, petulantly, at last, after learning from Helen and Uncle Peabody such details as he could draw forth regarding the duration of his illness and its general nature. “I remember now leaving the library in the motor-car with Miss Thayer. We went—where did we go? Oh yes; to San Domenico. Then we came home. Did we come home?” he asked, with uncertainty in his voice; but before an answer could be given he had himself supplied the connecting link.
“I have it!” he cried, raising himself upon his elbow—“there was an accident. Alfonse tried to take that turn at the foot of the hill, and we smashed against the wall.”
“Yes,” Helen assented, trying to calm his rising excitement, “there was an accident, and you were badly hurt; but you are nearly well now. Please go slowly, Jack, or you will undo all that your long rest has accomplished. There is plenty of time.”
“But Miss Thayer,” he replied, not heeding her admonition and glancing about searchingly. “Where is Miss Thayer? She was injured, too?”
“Not seriously,” Helen reassured him.
“Then where is she?”
“I don’t know exactly, but she is not far away.”
“You have not sent her away while I have been ill?” he asked, with a touch of his former suspicion.